E-mail, Feeds, 'n' Stuff

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Train wreck -- film at 11

The Candidates Gone Wild folks have kicked Portland City Council candidate Emilie Boyles off the program for their upcoming political debate and tent show scheduled for May 1. But they've gone one better than that -- they've posted an extraordinary video of Boyles huffing and puffing her way through an exclusive interview about the apparent fraud in her qualification for "clean money" under the city's controversial new public campaign finance system.

It's worth a viewing, as it's the shortest political career I believe you'll ever see.

Comments (31)

Is it me, or is the music in the background a little heavy-handed? As soon as Emilie starts talking, they start tinkling that creepy Twilight Zone sound behind her. Unnecessary to make the point, I'd say.

A little heavy handed? At first I thought it was a parody but if that were true it would have required the sponsors of 'Candidates Gone Wild' to have an actual sense of humor but before they develop that they are in need of some massive transfusions of irony because how can they call their forum 'Candidates Gone Wild' and exclude the only candidate who actually fills the bill? The forum might as well be sponsored by The Oregonian, and called 'DECISIONS 2006'. Willamette Week has just demonstrated how it's become as much a Granite facade as the Big o. She is not being excluded because she availed herself of 150,000 but because she's a chunky woman who lives in a trailer in East Multnomah and that's so so not a part of the Willamette Week aesthetic of hip. Erik Sten is going to be reelected and I bet she'll even get blamed for that. If she were a man, thin, and well connected she'd be President. I think she even handles herself a lot better than the chimp did in the Rose Garden yesterday when he was fielding softballs about Rummy. Give me a break.

The music, faux typewriter sounds, down-in-the-mouth narration and other aspects clearly identify this as a negative campaign piece either/both against Boyles or/and for Sten.

Have Candidates Gone Wild and WW filed an independent expenditure report with City Elections officials?

Either way, Boyles and/or the other candidates must now file for matching Free Money contribution(s), representing the cost/value of the work that went into this ad and its distribution.

The candidates need to give the Citizen Commission a chance to look this over and decide.

1. Are Candidates Gone Wild and WW are acting and spending either against or for a candidate?

2. Are independent expenditures to be compensated by paying out the matching funds called for under the Free Money rules?

3. Are all these folks ducking the law to enable campaign spending for Erik Sten in excess of the legal limit?

This shows why the MSM like WW should not be exempted from the calculation of campaign expenditures. What we have is Big Speech from people who buy ink by the barrel, and it all rolls in favor of the incumbent, in favor of the fawning MSM's Free Speech monopoly, and against the Free Speech rights of critics like Boyles and her fellow challengers.

She is not being excluded because she availed herself of 150,000 but because she's a chunky woman who lives in a trailer in East Multnomah and that's so so not a part of the Willamette Week aesthetic of hip.

I agree that this video was not produced in a manner designed to portray a fair look at Ms. Boyles. It's obviously designed to make her look as bad as possible, and the effects really annoy me. That being said, what's even worse is Ms. Boyles herself. She's fooled herself into thinking that she has a viable campaign and has the audacity to basically say "If I broke the law, it's not my fault and people should vote for me." Wow...

Six or seven years ago, I heard Normon Soloman, who once wrote for WW, say he would refuse a copy even if he were stuck in prison with nothing to read. I think it's better than it was then, but it is in the same league as the O insofar as both have long been ignoring major public interest angles on stories.

As for Boyles, she is far from perfect, but is being cast in the worst possible light. And it ain't fair. Both Sten and Boyles recognize that
the capital P Poor is a potentially a major voting bloc in the CoP. I will be perfectly frank and say that Dave Lister's "poor by choice" characterization bothers me some. There are problems with some of our major institutions and employers in this area, some have been illustrated on this blog. Not everyone has high bs tolerance. And I think about a guy my parents knew back in the 1960s in Palo Alto: he was the first, or one of them, to perfect "instant replay" technology while working for one of the big electronics houses there. An intellectual property fight ensued (I was too young to care about details) and he was blacklisted to the point that he was lucky to find a job selling shoes. I don't think we can oversimplify when we address the problems of poverty and homelessness.

Sharon Nasset was also not invited to WW's party which leads me to believe that the once "alternative paper" in Portland has become just as MS as I had feared. Where is Mike Casper, Chris Iverson??? These two qualify as wild as well. It would have been fun had the whole roster been included, even emily, but now ho hum

One logistical problem is that the format has all the candidates on the stage at once, and they're already pushing it with seven candidates and three questioners. There were six candidates last time, and it was kind of tight.

Yes, you're right we can't have politicians breaking the law. That is not allowed and Emilie has been culled from the herd insuring the integrity of our democracy. I was stupid to think adults would behave like children on a playground excluding the fat kid w/ the glasses from playing with them. I need to adjust my medication again I'm becoming delusional. Thanks. I needed that.

I can see why the payments to Boyles' daughter are raising red flags. But, imho, the fact that Sten considered her campaign viable at one time lends credibility to her assertion that she was targeted. That's how the Goldscmidt machine operates: trolls pretend to be friends and confidants to people considered threats and then set them up or smear them.

And I will believe Neil is out of the picture when I see him in a cage on display in Pioneer Square. But some people think he's just a patsy himself; someone who understood how Oregon worked and brought in friends from outside. This could be. Phil Stanford wrote that the Golschmidt machine was just a continuation of another: Schrunk-Kell?

Goldschmidt vs. Emily Boyles! This is good...a deep game indeed: Neil PRETENDS to be working to engineer the Texas Pacific take over of PGE...which Sten PRETENDS to oppose, so as to make his secret blood pact with Neil all the more secret...Then Neil slips Willamette Week the tip about the 14-year-old girl...so as to arrange his "disgrace", right...meanwhile Sten continues to pretend to push the PGE take over, which the Goldschmidt circle pretends to oppose tooth-and-nail, all the while secretly working with Sten to set up this climatic showdown with... EMILY BOYLES.

And! I forgot one crucial aspect of Goldschmidt vs Boyles: the clever feint-campaign of Ginny Burdick, who publicly PRETENDS to be the big-biz pick to take out Sten, but in reality is helping cover up the fiendish plot to destroy...EMILY BOYLES.

I forgot; Emilie Boyles is a nobody, a fat nobody. It is easy to hold someone like that accountable,and it is easy for the Oregonian to cover it. Makes it look like there is some accountability at City Hall. "Clean money" is a small part of the waste over there.

Once again I would like to point out that WW is being unfair by not inviting ALL of the candidates. I have attended many forums at this point and have not seen anyone getting out of hand or crowding each other out for space. We are all adults here. Where is the Fair and Honest look at the candidates at this venue?????

Maybe the money should be distributed the way Peter Sellers got rid of his fortune at the end of 'The Magic Christian' dumping it all in a vat of raw sewage and letting all those who want it bad enough dive in.